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Federal Government Plans To Construct 2,700 Housing Units

The Federal Government is planning the construction of 2,700 housing units in the short term to create 105,000 direct jobs, and increase to 100,000 housing units by 2020 to achieve sustainable development.

The plan is stated in the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017-2020 (ERGP), a copy of which was obtained from the Ministry of Budget and National Planning on Thursday in Abuja.

The ERGP projects that Nigeria will make significant progress to achieve structural economic change with a more diversified and inclusive economy in five key areas by 2020.

The key areas are stable macro-economic environment; achieve agriculture and food security; ensure energy sufficiency in power and petroleum products; and drive industrialisation focusing on Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as well as improve transportation infrastructure.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment is expected to take lead in the plan by coming up with key activities to provide housing units and create direct jobs.

According to the ERGP, the Ministries of Women Affairs and Youth and Sports also is expected to come up with strategy that will boost job creation and public works programmes.

Specifically, the Ministry of Women Affairs is expected to establish a job matching programme for new graduates by incentivising employers to retain National Youth Service Corp members at the end of their service.

The ministry is also expected to sustain and scale up the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) to deliver credit to 1.6 million farmers, youth, women market traders and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

On the other hand, the Ministry of Youth and Sports is expected to accelerate implementation of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) using Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to generate 1.5 million jobs by 2020.

The ministry is also expected to enforce the local policy to promote job creation through procurement processes and expand workfare programme in collaboration with the states.

In addition, the Office of the Vice President is also expected to come up with strategy that will boost job creation and public works programmes.

The office will achieve that by scaling up the N-Power Volunteer corps to provide temporary employment for 500,000 graduates annually in education, agriculture and health.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labour and Employment is expected to take lead in key activities that will roll out the targeted skills-to-job N-power Build Programme to build a competent workforce of technicians and artisans.

The ministry is also expected to develop a national manpower policy to match job skill requirements and education programmes.

Also, the Ministry of Youth and Sports is to take a visible lead by articulating activities that are captured in number 45, page 158 of the document.

The priority in number 45 states that the ministry should develop local empowerment centres to disseminate and provide business support to entrepreneurs through apprenticeship and mentorship.

In addition, the ministry is expected to establish skill acquisition centres in all the 36 states and the FCT.

It is also expected to provide incentives to corporate bodies and parastatals to expand opportunities for internship, traineeships for young new entrants into the labour market.

Meanwhile, according to the ERGP, the Office of the President is expected to provide support for the execution of the N-Power Knowledge Programme to train participants in animation, software engineering, graphic arts and device repair and assembly.

The ERGP provides for effective collaboration and coordination with the states to ensure that the Federal and State Governments work toward the same goals.